STALKER: The Bandit Story
by Filosoof
Summary: The first part of a group of Bandits in the Zone.


We were a group of thieves that ventured into the Zone. The seven of us had taken over a small farm, not far from the rookie camp in Cordon, not far from the broken bridge where the army had made a little outpost.

In the morning, the sun was slowly rising. Hunter had spotted a rookie from afar. The flashlight was burning bright in the dark, and some gunshots were heard. The rookie survived, despite being harassed by a pack of blind dogs.

Hunter looked amused, he saw the rookie coming his way. His back almost literally cracking in two because of the weight he was packing in that backpack. The rookie didn't stand a chance against Hunter. We all looked at him, seeing him taking the the dangerous alleyway, the one filled with electricity anomalies, just not to pay the fee at the guys in the outpost and we all understood him. The more you had with you, the more you had to hand over.

Hunter quickly passed the road, while it was still dark, so that the guys at the outpost wouldn't see him running. He continued to run towards the alleyway, climbing up the little ledge at the end of the alleyway. Waiting for the rookie to come out. If he made it out alive.

We saw Hunter waiting there for 'bout half an hour. The rookie then -having some serious burnt wounds on his body- came out of the alleyway. Quite weakened and barely able to stand on his feet. Hunter leaped upon him. He took his knife and slit the throat of the rookie. Taking his backpack, PDA, pistol and his ammo. He came back to us.

It took him about twenty minutes, handling another rookie and some boars before coming back to us. With the day being clear and crisp now. He took another route. The soldiers at the outpost would have spotted him, immediately opening fire.

Back at our camp, we greedily opened the backpacks. They contained some food and medkits. Which was good, since our resources were nearly depleted. I took a bottle of vodka from the backpack and opened it, drinking some of the vodka before passing the bottle.

We were Bandits with honour. If we could, we would burn the corpse. If we couldn't, we would drink a bit of vodka in mourn of the passed one. At least the dogs had some food then. And a stalker could take his clothes and sell them for a little price.

We counted the amount of artifacts in the backpacks. 4 jellyfishes... Not much, but it's good for a little pocket change.

We stashed the jellyfishes away in the general stash and divided the food into our own personal stashes, I gave away my medkits to the other guys, having enough myself, only taking the bandages.

Chief started talking about the plan he made up, and what our role was in the plan. The mission to raid the Trader here in Cordon. Just next to the nearly deserted rookie camp.

Since the massive blowout some months ago, most of those rookies died, and the army had started constantly checking out the deserted rookie camp, shooting at all that moved there.

Suddenly we heard a faint scream from Lev. He ran towards us, bleeding heavily. I immediately treated him while Chief asked him by who or whom he was attacked. It seemed that the military had found out that we had a camp and they were coming for us. Boris flipped a simple switch on his device to activate the many booby traps. We used booby traps to keep boars, pseudo dogs, zombies… You know, to keep everything outside that shouldn't come in here.

The first explosion rang in my ears and the fight started. The sounds and smell gave birth to a grim atmosphere. Death was in the ring and we had to fight or die. The normal life in the Zone, in case you didn't know yet. With one man out, we hid him under the stairs, we went outside. They were with six guys, heavily armed, and a quick glance and well aimed shot made the first one fall down already. I was pretty skilled with my rifles. We all had our expertise.

Seeking cover where we could find. We had them down pretty quickly. Especially because Boris was there with his booby traps and his oh so many self-made turrets. Poorly made, but working great, using particles of some artifacts we found. He's a real genius.

But Boris was always… the one that rushed into things. And so we saw him fall before our eyes. A bullet to the head.

Boris, the oldest of the group, the biggest one. With his cold blue eyes and his grey/black goatee and sideburns.

He fell to the ground, still shooting his rifle. And then we went into a rage… We started throwing grenades, explosions everywhere. It was a nice sight, while I was still here and there ending the job for those that were slowly dying.

First standing over them and grinning, then aiming my pistol at them. Cursing them for killing Boris and blasting their head off.

We looted them all, nothing valuable, expect for that one artefact that I had never seen before. It looked like a huge ball of … charcoal. Very weird. It also made a sort of buzzing noise.

Chief took the artefact and started looking at it, not knowing what it was, he put it in a pocket of his jacket. Telling us he would inform later at the Freedom base about this artefact. I went outside and lifted Boris up. His eyes still looking cold. Hunter and Veteran dug a grave for Boris. we buried him with his stash filled with all his possessions: his special rifle, his artifacts, we put it all into his stash, even his medkits and bandages.

**One Man Less**

Since our team was with one man less, the mission had to be adjusted. One guy less to carry loot, since we couldn't afford to have less guards, in case of the army was coming to take a peek.

And with Boris dead, we couldn't blast that thick steel door open anymore. But we were thieves, and had some inspiration. We would find a way.  
Suddenly Philosopher started speaking, and it was a surprise to us. He never spoke, expect if he knew the solution to something. He would make a machine that would break the lock on the massive steel door and force it to open. Our mouths dropped open, we never knew he possessed such knowledge. He smiled at us and we cheered, our plan was going to work after all.

He instructed us to get some stuff, needing several components, easy to be found in Garbage. Not that Garbage was an easy place to peacefully search your things. The place was quite radioactive and filled with every kind of anomaly that you could think of. I noticed Hunter was luring outside with his binoculars, probably seeing another rookie to rob. Simply ignoring it, I kept listening to Philosopher explaining his plan. All of a sudden Chief asked Philosopher if he was able to reform the rifles, like Boris used to do. Philosopher nodded, saying he could even change the type of ammo used, as long as he had the tools. For the first time in a while I saw a smile on Chief's face, and when he smiled, he was pretty damn sure whatever he was doing would work. But we had to get to the garbage first. Chief asked Lev, Veteran and me to go to garbage. We loaded up on food, vodka, medkits, bandages, grabbed some ammo and our trustworthy rifles and started our travel to Garbage.

**The Travel**

We confronted our first problem just after we left the farm. Taking the back exit, we found ourselves surrounded by zombies. The zombies weren't really fast, but they could pose a threat for Chief and Philosopher. The booby traps weren't activated so I pushed Lev back inside to switch them on. Meanwhile Veteran and me lure them away from the farm. We started shooting on them. Seeing a grenade flying towards us, I could just push Veteran away and kick the grenade into the direction of the zombies. The soldiers had certainly heard us shooting at the things. Lying down on the grass, I quickly started crawling towards the broken train rail, while Veteran was still shooting at the zombies and soldiers alike. Yelling at him, he quickly started running at me, having the luck of avoiding the bullets shot by the soldiers.  
At the rails, we slowly walked up to the part where bridge is broken and Veteran took out a jellyfish, poking some holes in it and dropping it right in the middle of the group soldiers. The anomaly unfolded and we both looked with great pleasure how they struggled to stay alive. Veteran being a real stalker, took out his pistol and shot a couple of times. Told me if they are hurt, they'll die even faster, with a big grin on his face. Couldn't say I didn't agree with him,.

Constantly throwing little pebbles in front of us, we managed to avoid the few anomalies that we came across. We even managed to find a Jellyfish lying in the grass, not far from the moving anomaly. We kept walking, until we saw some stalkers coming from afar. I took Veteran's binoculars that were hanging from his neck and took a nice long look.

Covered faces with gas masks, white stalker suits. I couldn't be wrong, that were guys from the Monolith faction. The ones that believe the Wishmaster really exists, a huge pile of bullshit if you ask me. There is nothing but immense radiation in the centre of the Zone, I'm perfectly happy staying here. Though Veteran was saying that we should rob them, for their nice suits they were wearing, it gave me an eerie feeling. I've never trusted those guys, but they had some nice equipment and suits. I nodded at Veteran, and we hid ourselves, there were only two monoliths. If we could surprise them, we had them where we wanted. Slowly it was getting dark, an advantage. With our black/dark brown (trench) coats, we had nothing to fear.  
Out of nothing, in the abandoned farm they got attacked by some Chimera's. They didn't attack us, so they had to be tamed beasts from stalkers from the Beast faction. We were in good contact with the Beast faction, they were one of the few neutral factions. We signalled that we meant no harm and came closer. We asked the stalkers if we could have the suits and perhaps the rifles too. They nodded, looking at the equipment, they told us they didn't really need such old stuff. We threw our old rifles away and took the new ones. I folded the suits and put them in my backpack. We would give them a new color back at the camp. I asked one of the stalkers if they weren't planning to go to Garbage soon. He nodded and invited us to stay for the night.

It was a real mess there. Loners, Thieves and Duty fighting with each other. With only two thieves it was a work of suicide. They even would help us, since they were going to try to get some artifacts from the Garbage piles. The Mountains of Debris, so radioactive that you could fry your meat on it. We went into the farm with the stalkers and we saw that the whole place was a camp build by the stalkers.

We gave our guns to the technician to be repaired and we even did get some spare ammo, because it was useless for their guns. I asked him if he was able to paint our white suits in black and he nodded, saying a price.

He asked one Stone Flower, I grumbled a bit, I only had one, and was planning to sell it to a guy who wanted it. It had no use for me, and I was able to get some good money for it. But it would be better if the suits were already painted, and with the suits on, we would hardly need to use any Anti-rad, which would be quite the saving on our money. I took out the list and reread it with my flashlight on, Veteran was reading along. Veteran was already sleeping, and I was looking outside, wondering where Lev had stayed. He probably stayed with Chief.

**C'mere!**

One of the stalkers woke us up, saying they were going to leave in something more then five minutes. An emission was about to commence and this farm wasn't save to shelter in. We jumped up, took our backpacks and rushed along with the others. Hearing one of those stalkers scream that we had about 10 minutes to get to the building just before Garbage, we knew we would have to run FAST!

The sirens started yelling, mutant beasts running in distress, and a lone stalker running along with us, filled with despair, afraid that he would die. We all started to have a hard time, the upcoming radiation and pressure breaking us down, and the emission was starting to totally break out. The sky started turning bright red, while the anomalies around us started going wild, taking enormous proportions! We were almost there, just a few more meters! Lightning and thunder dancing and singing round us, the radiation levels became unbearable, with our last strength we bashed in the door.

All lying in the ground, covering our heads, we kept waiting until the blowout passed away. Emissions came in two types: long and heavy, or short and unbearable. We were having a type two. Done in less than 10 minutes, the rookie didn't survive the brain damage, not that one of us was feeling fine, some of us were throwing up, I myself was shaking on my legs. I had to eat something and drink some vodka.

After some minutes I stood up and looked outside, it was raining. I opened the back door, leading to Garbage and threw a little pebble. A column of fire sprouted before my eyes, burning and blistering my face. I mumbled to myself, the emission replaced all the anomalies, putting one right in front of this fucking door. We went back outside through the front door. I had seen there was a closed fence that we could get through. Using my pebbles to ensure there weren't any anomalies, we all stood there, lifting each other to get over the fence. Veteran was the last one to get over it, using his gun he simply broke the lock that was attached to it, coming through the fence, he laughed at me. I gave him the middle finger, and laughingly we proceeded our way into Garbage. But we didn't laugh long. Hardly taking a few passes into Garbage, we got already shot at by some damn rookies, hiding in the bushes. We couldn't see where they were coming from. I took a grenade, but the Chimera's were faster, the other stalkers held us back and told us to let the Chimera's do the work. Against those rookies it wouldn't be a problem. It didn't take long or we heard screams, seeing a rookie getting dragged into the anomaly closeby, getting compressed into a muzzle and then to get splattered all over the place.

After a minute or two, the Chimera's came back, the blood still dripping from their teeth. Quite useful those Chimera's, Veteran told me, and I agreed.

But we were still an hour away from those Garbage piles, a easy route. Last time we had passed in Garbage, the upcoming camps were still property of the thieves, but Duty and those Loners were still here too. And it weren't only rookies camping here.

While we were cautiously walking forward, constantly looking out for potential threats, I saw some familiar faces. Two thieves came running at us. So the camps were still ours, with the Stalker life already being harsh, the anomalies, mutants… Duty and the Loners grouping up against thieves certainly didn't make it easier for them. I showed the list to one of the guys, and got the answer we could get two guys with us. Snorks and a Bloodsucker had been signalised at the Garbage piles, and it wasn't safe for us. The two that would go with us had a mission on their own, finding some artifacts, and protecting us since they were specialised in the extermination of Snorks and Bloodsuckers. We all looked surprised when he said Bloodsuckers. He told us that they had captured a bloodsucker, or rather, had shot it down. Coming from Dark Valley, they had heard some weird things coming from there. The masked stalker asked us if we knew an anomaly that looked like a Burner, but that "ran" around, following an random route. I looked at him, asking if it wasn't one of those legendary poltergeists. Having silence for an answer, the other one said he had once encountered a Poltergeist and this thing wasn't a Poltergeist. They could summon a Burner, but not like this one moved. The other stalkers that accompanied us were mumbling, I heard some words and found out they had to go to Dark Valley when they were done helping us. I sighed and looked at them. We couldn't go with them, as we had our own mission. But on the other hand it was perhaps an excellent chance to get some new artifacts. We never had been into Dark Valley before. Because the shortest route was blocked by a a pack of Pseudo Dogs, and I wasn't a match for those things. I told the stalkers that I would go with them for a brief time, but first we had to take out that pack of Pseudo Dogs in Cordon. It was the most safe entrance too, since one of the Bandits said the entrance from Garbage was almost literally filled with Fruit Punch anomalies. The entrance was now called the "Fruit Punch Pool". We all looked at each other and one of the other stalker took his communicator and ordered the two specialists to come at the camp just before the Garbage piles, next to the radiated swamp. We continued our way there, the two Bandits leading the way. They had already found a safe route between the different anomalies. Mostly trial and error. I asked the masked one what happened, and he took of his mask. Horrified I took a few steps backward, his face was totally burnt, a little risk he took not having any pebbles or anything else left to throw, and he ran right into a Burner.

After twenty minutes we arrived at the place, with the two stalkers looking around, ready to shoot. They instructed us to come quickly, a bloodsucker had been spotted. We unlocked our rifles and looked everywhere, for a sign of something, well, we didn't even know how it looked like. At a sudden moment, one of the two yelled at me that I had to aim right before me and shoot immediately, the thing was coming right at me. I stumbled backwards, heard heavy sighing coming at me. I aimed right before me and started shooting.

The bullets hit something alright, but I didn't know what… Until I suddenly saw it, so this was a Bloodsucker, the creature that could become invisible, leading to the unexplainable death of many stalkers.

I heard a loud blast, and some 100 meters before me, a grenade exploded and the Bloodsucker fell down to the ground. While I looked where that grenade came from, I saw one of those two thieves just put another grenade into his Bulldog 6. One used a grenade launcher and the other used a Vintar BC. I was thinking of having a talk to Chief of staying in Garbage for a little while. But that can be done when we return. Chopping of the head of the Bloodsucker as a trophy, one of the thieves wrapped it in some paper and put it in a box. They sent one of the other stalkers back to the thieves camp, showing him the safest and shortest route possible. They were real experts, you could see that in their way of handling things.

And after a while, we stood not far away from one of the piles where we had to find our list of things, and of course, some artifacts. The Mountain of Debris was almost shining of radiation and anomalies. We also heard some strange sounds, coming from the Snorks the two experts said. The Chimera's were growling, a bloodthirsty growl, somehow it enraged us. We started climbing up the mountain, in two groups. Each searching for different there were enough, but we needed the ones in excellent shape. Alert and guns ready to shoot, we started looking. Getting further and further away from the other group, we found already two of the six components. At that moment I felt something pulling at my feet, a Vortex anomaly! Immediately the two stalkers grabbed my arms, trying to pull me out, but they were getting dragged along as well, though the beast stalker called him Chimera, it leaped towards us and started pulling along with the stalkers. With three of them I got pulled out, though my foot was instantly crushed by the anomaly. Giving moderate medical care I could barely keep standing, the insane blood loss and radiation made my head twirl.

I awoke inside the thieves camp, with one of the nearby thieves saying that they had found all components, and had divided the artifacts with the beast stalkers. They had already gone back to Cordon to go to Dark Valley.

They left me behind while I was passed out… I suddenly remembered that my foot had been crushed by that anomaly, and I looked at it. To my great surprise my foot was encased in a metallic frame, resemblind my own foot. An experimental type of surgery, discovered by Medic, the medic of this faction. By the use of certain artifacts and a metal replacement of my foot, he had created a "cyborg foot" that I could stand on. Some guys standing next to me helped me straight up and I was surprised. I could really stand on it, it even felt like my own foot.

Medic didn't want to say what artifact he used, and nobody else knew. Not even the leader of the group, but Medic was a veteran, he had been deep into the Zone to find these types of artifacts. The only thing he gave me was the name of the artefact: Virus.

I thanked him, and he thanked me. They had already taken a little price for that surgery. All my artifacts that I had. I sighed, now I didn't have any artifacts left. Out of nowhere Veteran came at me, holding some artifacts. He told me he found these, better versions of the ones I used. Looking at the amount of artifacts he had, I asked him if he had paid the Experts and the other stalkers. He looked at me and told me that the amount he found on that mountain of debris was huge. He had paid them handsomely, all thanks to another emission that had occurred. I asked him how long I had been sleeping, and before he could answer, Medic told me I had been sleeping for about a week, I had been forcefully sleeping through the use of anaesthetics. Veteran handed me a bottle of vodka, told me to quench my thirst after that week. While I was drinking, we heard sirens ringing. Another emission! The previous one just had been three days ago I heard some Bandits yell. We kept standing in this hangar, the place was safe. One of the Bandits yelled at us that we had to take our guns and get ready for action, this was the only shelter aside from the Duty's, but that thing was on the whole other side of Garbage and all Loners in this neighbourhood would come this way! I grabbed the first gun that I could find, checked on its ammo and got dragged along with Veteran after some cover, luring at the front gates.

Soon the first stalkers came running from behind the walls, getting shot in an instant. The poor bastards, but the life in the Zone was hard and unmerciful. It's not like they would have survived it after the blowout. We had some stalkres coming through, but the overall was pretty easy. I sighed from relief that not one Duty found his way to this place, never met one before, and didn't want to meet one either.

Gearing up my suit with my new artifacts, we went back to Cordon. This last emission had taken place a week after the previous one. So we had time to get back in Cordon. No problem, no problem at all.

**Safe Return**

The Zone had changed, the mutant population had increased beyond expectations. Constantly having to take fire, our ammo was depleting by the minutes that passed. I had hardly any ammo left, and Veteran was already using his pistol. We weren't that far away from the farm, but… There were still the zombies and, or new soldiers. We were bound to meet one of the two.

Starting to run, we arrived at the rails and I remembered something. My stash I had left at the rails, in case of emergency. With some luck it was still there. I quickly went checking it, telling Veteran that he had to give me cover when needed. I took the stash and got the pistol and ammo out. We had a chance to get into the farm without trouble. Putting the rest of the ammo in my pockets I ran back to Veteran. I gave him some of the ammo, and we slowly walked a little further. Out of sight for the guys at the outpost and the zombies.

Turning night, we had our advantage against the outpost, but the disadvantage against the zombies. If they were still there… Chief never wanted to waste good ammo or grenades at those zombies, they needed too much bullets to stay down. Veteran was whispering to me that we could take some more loot from those soldiers. He had taken a quick peek, only three rookie soldiers. A piece of cake, we only had to wait an hour for it to become totally dark.

When it was pitch black, we made our move. Putting our nightvision on, it was an old model, but it worked and it was nice and clean. With our black suits they would never see us coming. He had to distract them with some shooting, and I would try to shoot them down from the other side. A nasty but nifty plan.

Veteran ran down, while I ran up the rails, taking the ledge on the outside and drop myself down. I heard him shooting and the soldiers returning the shoot. It was almost too easy, the flashlight were a real give-away. We grabbed their supplies and the only artifact we found lying there and returned back to the farm.

Back at the farm we were in for a surprise, a bad surprise. Chief and Hunter, both killed, Lev heavily wounded and Philosopher nowhere to be seen.

Lev breathed heavily, telling Veteran and me that Philosopher suddenly had gone crazy, killing Chief and Hunter and almost killing him too. While hailing the Monolith, he departed. So it was actually true, he wasn't a real Bandit. Philosopher had never shown his face, always talked to himself and wanted to go to the Wishmaster all the time. We tried to treat Lev, but it was already too late, he died because of the blood loss.

Philosopher was indeed a weird guy, even outside the Zone, always talking to himself and looking at us with a despicable look in his eyes. Like we were unworthy. It was his idea to come to the Zone in the first place.

I looked at Veteran and he nodded, throwing the components on the ground. We would take a trip into the Zone, finding and killing Philosopher. We went outside and buried three graves. Hanging their guns and suits on the self made crosses, we carved in a little text and their name. It was quiet, aside from some beasts and the wind blowing, but a cold and pressing atmosphere had befallen on us, something was bound to happen soon. That moment, I felt a bullet piercing right through my shoulder and ricochetting at the wall. A loud laugh, we turned around and there he stood. Philosopher, with his rifle aimed at us both. I wanted to ask him why he did it, but the gun of Veteran was faster, shooting at him, Philosopher had to search cover fast. I noticed he had that strange black orb artifact hanging at his belt. He had been hiding in one of the buildings, waiting for a perfect chance to end the job, but he couldn't. Veteran lobbed a grenade at him, but there was no movement whatsoever. Veteran slowly went looking and came back, he told me that Philosopher was gone. How he did it, we didn't know, but he was gone. Leaving us only a note hung on the wall.

"I'll come to get you."


End file.
